But despite heavy investments in three districts in North Carolina, Democrats were unable to wrest control of a single Republican-held seat in the state. Republicans maintained control of 10 of the state’s 13 congressional seats.

“The blue tide did not breach the gerrymandered sea wall that exists because of the broken redistricting process we have in North Carolina,” said Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause NC. “That was what we were watching for. We were waiting to see, does anything change? Gerrymandering does provide a protective sea wall for those districts.”

Across the state, Republican candidates for Congress won 50.3 percent of the vote and Democrats won 48.4 percent of the vote, according to a News & Observer analysis of vote totals. Democrats did not have a candidate in Eastern North Carolina’s 3rd district, won by Republican incumbent Rep. Walter Jones.

But Republicans kept their 10-3 edge in the state’s House delegation.

President Donald Trump expressed optimism about his party's electoral successes in the 2018 midterm elections during a post-election press conference on Nov. 7, 2018 at the White House.

“The fact that the Democrats competed so heavily in the seats means that they were very confident they could win those seats,” said state Rep. David Lewis, a Harnett County Republican who helped draw the districts.

“If they are very confident they could win those seats, it proves the seats were not drawn to keep them out of the process ... Any person who has looked through their mailbox or watched TV or gone on the internet or opened a newspaper knows these seats are in fact competitive.”

Opponents of partisan-led redistricting won several victories Tuesday. In Michigan, Colorado, Utah and Missouri, ballot measures designed to create independent processes for drawing districts won approval, according to Stateline. In Pennsylvania, where districts redrawn under a court order were used for the first time, Democrats won four additional seats. Previously Republicans held 13 of 18 House seats.

Phillips, of Common Cause, said he hopes to eventually have North Carolina follow those other states and allow the public to vote on a constitutional amendment for redistricting reform. The legislature would have to put such an amendment on the ballot.

Before that, he said, he’d welcome legislative action to reform the process of drawing districts. And the Supreme Court could decide the fate of the congressional districts as early as June 2019.

In the wake of our victory in breaking the supermajority, I’m hearing overwhelming calls for ending gerrymandering.

I am with you 1,000%.

I know there are many Republicans ready to do this, and I’m ready to work with them. We must get this done.

“We need to take partisan politics out of the redistricting process entirely. It’s time for leaders from both sides of the aisle to work together on an independent redistricting process that gives the people their voice,” Gerrick Brenner, executive director of Progress NC Action, said in a statement.

Lewis famously said in 2016 that the maps were drawn “to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats because I do not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.” It is a line that has been cited over and over again in court. Lewis said Wednesday that politics was a consideration in drawing the district, but “it was not the predominant role.”

“The majority of the people voted for a Republican for Congress (on Tuesday). That’s a fact,” Lewis said. “I just think that the Democrats’ strategy of suing until they find a sympathetic judge is just simply not going to work this time.”

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